Curlew Lake

If you’d like both a relaxing camping destination and a selection of historical activities to keep you busy, then Curlew Lake State Park is your place. Enjoy lake activities like kayaking, canoeing, fishing, and swimming, and afterwards rest and picnic in the shady campsites. You may spot an osprey or heron nest, whose owners often swoop down to gather food from Curlew Lake to feed their young. Washington’s smallest state park, Ranald McDonald’s Grave State Park Heritage Site, can be found a 30 minute drive to the north. McDonald was the first native English speaker to teach the language in Japan and helped open up a relationship between the U.S. and Japan in the mid-1800s. The nearby gold rush town of Republic features a public fossil dig called Stonerose, where you and the family can dig up and keep your own fossils from shale rock, which are hundreds of millions of years old. Few souvenirs can be as memorable as one you found yourself!